An Elephant Sitting Still

A film proving that the word 'auteur' could have been coined for the late Hu Bo.

The
elephant of this film's title is a symbol, one that is touched on at
intervals throughout a work which otherwise plays out in realist mode.
It is a remarkable work that would have had one predicting a bright
future for the man who wrote, edited and directed it but for the fact
that this man, Hu Bo, having made this first feature after a
number of shorts, tragically killed himself. He was 29.

It
is exceedingly difficult to sustain any film lasting close on four
hours as this one does so it is hardly surprising that the last hour of
An Elephant Sitting Still, an
hour during which the plotting comes to see more contrived and leads to
a final scene emphasising the symbolism, has it weaknesses. But, at its
best, this film is a tour-de-force. If its essential humanity together
with casting which ensures that the people feel absolutely real evoke
thoughts of the cinema of Ozu (together with a hint of De Sica's Umberto D.
since here too there is an older character with a dog), it can also be
said that the style of filmmaking is as individual as that of Ozu but
in a mould entirely its own. Bo may cut at the end of sequences but
most of the scenes play out unedited using a Steadicam. This involves
the use of brilliantly controlled camera movement which invites close
identification with the four main figures in the story and it is
enhanced too by those moments when within the 'Scope image Bo makes
facial close-ups prominent. In addition, he balances the roving camera
movement with key moments that through the use of static shots acquire
an extra emphasis and depth of feeling.

Set within the course of a single day, An Elephant Sitting Still
follows its four leading figures in their city lives. Central is the
16-year-old schoolboy Wei Bu (Peng Yucheng) who, standing up for a
friend, accidentally causes the death of a bully. Yu Cheng (Zhang Yu)
is the bully's brother whose family expect him to exact revenge (he is
older and something of a hoodlum which makes the threat tangible
although this character emerges eventually less as a villain than as a
further victim of life). Meanwhile, Wei Bu's grandfather (Liu Congxi)
is resisting family plans to save money by putting him in a home and
another pupil, the 17-year-old girl Huang Ling (Wang Yuwen), always at
odds with her mother, is facing uncomfortable truths about the insecure
nature of her affair with the school's vice-dean.

Moving
from one figure to another at the start, the film is initially
demanding, but once the individuals are established it is compelling. A
late scene in which the grandfather visits a home where he may end up
is over-stylised and a few sequences feel over-extended, but for the
most part the sense that every shot has been precisely judged is
exceptional. The linking thread is a view of human behaviour as being
constant in the way that it causes human misery: the placid elephant in
a distant zoo stands for the hope of finding a way of standing apart
from this. But, as Hu Bo's own suicide suggests, his film although
portraying a quest for an alternative seems to believe at heart that
wherever you might go you will find life the same. At times the weight
of all this renders this story of betrayal and despair obsessive yet,
despite its imperfections, An Elephant Sitting Still
does capture the singular, extraordinary cinematic vision utterly
personal to its maker: Hu Bo's only feature gives him a place in film
history.